Monday, June 30, 2008

So not only is Bleeding Love one of my all time favorite songs, (Leona Lewis is amazing) but now it is the song from my favorite So You Think You Can Dance number from last week.

I am wavering with a favorite this year. I loved the above number with Mark and Chelsea. I really like these two dancers. Mark is so quirky and fun and Chelsea is beautiful (and honestly just as quirky in her own way). I also LOVE Joshua and Katee they are such great dancers and they have a great chemistry together. I LOVE Twitch but Kherington kinda gets on my nerves I have no idea why, she is an amazing dancer no doubt about it but ... yes but. I also thought that Kourtni and Matt were awesome last week but I don't think they will be around long. My prediction is that the newly formed couple of Thane and Comfort will not not fare any better with their new partner than with previous partners but as for the top four I have no idea who I want because every week I am completely impressed.

Monday, June 23, 2008

So I was telling the story of Sam and the stitches adventure to my Sunday School class because every week they ask me at the end of class for a "Sam Story" and I mentioned a part that I previously left out and they all said I had to write it down so I am writing it down here...

While we were waiting for the doctor to come back and put the stitches in I was trying to calm Sam by telling him funny (and yes exaggerated stories) of my dad's many broken, bashed, and bruised body parts. Which Sam thought was pretty fun. Then Sam asked me if I had ever had stitches and I said, "No, because I am a Chicken." Sam looked up at me with those big green eyes, put his hand on my arm and said, "No, Mom, you are not a chicken, you are a people."

I laughed. It was funny!

Oh and if you recall his stitches adventure happened on Thursday. On Sunday we went to my brother's house and Sam climbed up onto of his cousins playhouse and jumped off. I told him this was very much like the action that got him stitches in the first place ... and do you know what he told me! "It didn't hurt that bad." Next time I am not going to let them numb the area before the stitches and then maybe he will think before he leaps!

K-Crew Summer camp went to the gateway water fountains to play. And boy did they play. As Sam and his crew were walking past my building his teacher text messaged me and I ran down and walked with the kids to the traxs station. Then I rode the train with them to the gateway fountains where they got all wet. Sam kept hugging me so by the time I left and went back to work I was pretty soaked too. It was so much fun to see all the kids running around, screaming and LOVING the water! (And yes that is a pop tart temporary tattoo - gotta love those pop tarts!)

Monday, June 16, 2008

I was asked by the relief society president to participate in a relief society lesson on pioneer women in July and I was given a narrative to read (I am actually going to try and memorize it) about a women named Fanny Fry. She was born in September, 1842, in Portsmouth England. When she crossed the Atlantic Ocean and made her way across the planes she was only 16 years old. She came across with a sister and a brother. The brother stayed to earn money in New York. Fanny and her sister made it to Nebraska together but her sister travelled with a different company to Utah. Here is an excerpt from her story

I recollect one day the captain put me to a cart with six people's luggage on and only three to pull it (Don't you think like I do that often we are asked to pull far more than we think we are able...) - a woman, a lad of sixteen, and I, newly seventeen. All grown people were allowed twenty pounds of luggage apiece and their cooking utensils besides. That made quite a load for us. I know it was the hardest day's work I ever remember doing in all my life before or since. We had to pull up quite a long hill, and part of it was steep. In climbing we got behind one of the teams for the oxen to help us, for it was all we could do to keep it moving. Captain Rowley came up and called us lazy, and that I did not consider we were at all. (I don't know about you but I would have been furious at the Captain, all that hard work, the intense labor and they were called lazy. I think about all the times I have worked so hard and not received any recogniztion, whether it be as a Sunday School teacher, or a mother, or a friend or whatever but I thought perhaps man doesn't notice but God does.)While pulling this heavy lead, I looked and acted strange. The first thing my friend Emmie knew I had fallen under the cart, and before they could stop it, the cart had passed over me, and I lay at the back of it on the ground.When my companions go to me, I seemed perfectly dead. Emmie could not find any pulse at all, and there was not a soul around. They were, she thought, all ahead, so she stood thinking what to do when Captain Rowley came up to us. "What have you got there Emmie?" he said. "Oh my, Fanny is dead," she said. It frightened him, so he got off his horse and examined me closely but could not find any life at all. He asked Emmie to stay with me and he would go and stop the company and send a cart back for me, which he did.When I came to myself, my grave was dug two feet deep, and I was in a tent. The sisters had sewed me up to the waist in my blanket, ready for burial. I opened my eyes and looked at them.I was weak for some time after. I did not fully recover during the rest of the journey. Through it all I found I had a great many friends in the company.

I found this story to be so amazing. My first thought was the amount of patience she had not only to pull the cart but not yell and scream and get angry when the Captain called her lazy. She just considered him wrong and kept working. Then she almost died and although weak she realized how many friends she had in the company. I think of the amazing and difficult trials the pioneers overcame as they crossed the planes but I think my trials are no less and my triumphs just as miraculous. I have more to learn about Fanny and I am excited to read about her life and then consider how very much we are alike.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Yesterday was not a good day. I was at work sitting there ... working ... and suddenly I got hit with a wave of nausea. It was awful. And it didn't end there ... ooooh no it did not end there. So finally after enduring several trips down the hall to the ladies room I decided to abandon work and go home. I made it home (barely!) and took a nap. I woke up to the tinkling of my cell phone. I reached over and it was Sam's teacher. He had been playing on the jungle gym, fell and cracked his head open. They thought perhaps he might need stitches. So I tell them I will be right there, steel myself against the sickness, throw on some clothes and race down to his school. He was so sad and small, he had a huge gauzy thing taped to his head. But he didn't want me to touch it because it would hurt. So I took him to insta-care. When they called his name he walked back and down the hall (exactly how he was supposed to go) the nurse said, "I see that you have been here before." Yup that's us insta-care professionals. So she asked him what happened and I start to talk but he interrupts me and says, "I know, I was there..." and proceeds to tell the story in great detail. He got it right although slightly exaggerated. Then we went back into another room and she cleaned the wound. The doctor came in and said, indeed, he did need stitches. Four in total not many but I have never had stitches so it was an experience. (Not to mention I already felt like throwing up). Sam was a trooper. Even when she numbed the area (which as we all know is the most painful part) Sam didn't cry or even move his head. We were all impressed. Sam wanted to go back to school and show off his stitches but it was already four p.m. by the time that we got out of insta-care so we went and got him an ice cream for being such a brave boy. And a movie. Then we made it home just in the nick of time for me to ... well ... I won't go into detail.

This morning I feel much better. Sam feels like a superhero and proudly showed off his stitches at school before heading out the door for the Zoo field trip. And if my camera had not completely died yesterday I would have pics to show you of his bravery. Oh well I am sure there will be a next time!

Sam can fall down a flight of stairs and not cry. But when he feels left out he is crushed. This morning we were having a better than normal day. Honestly. We even got to school early. Jeddah is Sam's teacher. Jack and Hunter are Sam's best friends. We walk in Sam all smiles. Then this little girl in Sam's class walks up to Sam and says, "Jeddah left you. She took Hunter and Jack to the store and they left you."

Sam's eyes welled up with tears. And then he started to sob. New Kristin (that is what Sam calls her) reprimanded the little girl but the damage had been done. So I took Sam back out to my car and we talked for a little while. We saw Jeddah and the boys walking back but then Sam went from really sad to really angry. So I had him stay in the car while I talked with Jeddah for a minute so she understood his behavior. Fortunately, she and the boys came and talked to Sam and within a few minutes he was his happy playful self.

It is kinda funny when I leave he 'races' me to the end of the playground. He is inside the fence and I am outside the fence and then he blows me kisses. Gotta love that!